Judge Gary F. McKinley (shown here) told those in his standing-room-only courtroom that he knows allowing the standout out Kenton High School athletes to play sports before serving their sentences will be unpopular saying, "I’m cutting you somewhat of a break here, and the court will get criticized for this." Admitting he waffled on his decision, the judge added, "I shouldn't even be doing this."

Gee, you think? Allow me to start the criticism by saying what complete and utter crap! This is so wrong I don't even know where to begin.

Last November, the two football players and three others (who are awaiting trial) stole a decoy deer, painted obscenities on it then placed it in the middle of a darkened rural road to see what would happen when drivers approached.

When Robert Roby, Jr., who was 18 at the time, swerved to miss the decoy, his car rolled and he crashed into a pole and fence. He broke his neck, collar bone, arm and leg. His mother said he's facing his 11th surgery.

The passenger in his car, Dustin Zachariah, sustained brain damage. According to his mother, he now has the cognitive ability of a 6th grader.

In the courtroom Tuesday, as soon as it became obvious the two football players would be getting special treatment from the judge, relatives of the injured teens began to sob.

Even more suprising to me was the fact that one of the guilty football players had two previous juevenile court convictions. So it wasn't like the first time he was in trouble with the law. What a great example to teach these two kids -- if you're good at football, the normal rules of society don't apply to you. I wonder if the sentence would have been as lenient if the kids were on the swim team?

Not surprising, the Kenton schools Superintendent, Doug Roberts, said he supports the judge's decision. "Being a small school and a small community, we look at these things as a small family, and when your family has problems, you try to help them, rather than turn your back on them," he said.

Riiiight. That and the fact that Kenton hasn't won a state title since 2002.

This is appalling. There is no doubt that if these guys were on the debate team they would be going straight to juvenile detention. . . . BTW, 60 days vs. $1 million in medical bills and 11 surgeries is obscenely disproportionate. . . . The perfect ending to this story will be their being recruited to play for the Fulmer Cup winner.

You know, after reading this, at first I was ticked that the sentence was suspended until after football season. Then it dawned on me that their sentence was ONLY 60 freaking days in a juvie?!?! With two prior issues for the one kid? How about 2000 hours each of community service to be served, I don't know, helping out the kids they hurt and/or their families?

I could understand a little more if the judge was just a complete idiot and thought it was the right thing, but the fact that he actually says he shouldn't do it, and still does anyway just fucking reaks. I'm done.

Where did you get those facts? I linked to two stories about this and not ONE of them mentioned that. Not one. So if you have any proof of that besides "a friend of a friend said" I'd sure love to see it.

the driver being under the influence as well driving at an excessive speed was discussed at length on talk radio over the last night or so. many of these discussions were brought to the surface by residents of Kenton.

This is so sad! At what point to we actually PUNISH someone for their behavior. Make them accept the consequences for their actions? The underage drinking and use of illegal substance has punished the driver and his passenger. However, 60 days?!?! for the damage these others caused...

These are the type of kids that grow up to be Maurice C's or worse Terrell Owens. Thinking they are hot $h!t because they are star athlete, yet display horrible behavior, are an embarrassment for their actions, but that's ok!!! Let's reward these guys because they play a good game of football.

Who cares if your team suffers a bit, what kind of example are you setting by giving an easy sentence AFTER the season, warnings, probation or better yet, millions of dollars to these people that have no regard for anyone except themselves.

What ever happened to a good ole' spanking instead of these lousy time outs???

CaliGirl you honestly think T. Owens is worse than Maurice Clarett? Wow, has the media done a number on you. Last I checked TO was a law abiding citizen. Seems like your priorities are out of whack just like this judge.

As much as you may want to believe that this endemic is quarantined in OH and your criticisms of this judicial decision come from the infallable moral center of the universe, both are, in fact, false. These atheletes are creations of the society in which we live, (there is suprisingly little difference between the culture of MI and the culture of OH)and though we may criticize behavior and subsequent punishments in these episodes, we, as fans of our respective schools and teams, are indirectly responsible for both because of the money and attention we devote them. If you want to change this organize a protest, a mass protest; boycott the team, don't tune in, don't buy tickets, and live as though the game of football was never created. But until you do something about it don't get up on your soapbox and claim moral authority over how one locality deals with it's monsters created by the money/fame engine that we, as fans fuel with our passion.

I'm sure nothing like this--a stupid judicial decision--ever happens in the state of Michigan!

Give me a break.

Somewhere there's some kid, also a football player, doing something asinine and probably criminal inside the borders of the holier-than-thou state of Michigan.

Your cops are just too stupid or too lazy to catch them.

You guys at the M Zone must be bored silly these days to come up with fluff like this, let alone the feigned outrage. Better I think to just keep sitting around and wait to take you three losses again this season; including, another one to the “infidels” at OSU.

I love how our apparently Ohio readers first response is -- "I'm sure it happens in Michigan, too!" -- instead of being appalled at the decision.

Yes, I'm sure things like this do happen in places outside Ohio. And we would be disgusted no matter where it happened. But this is the one we know of.

As for the guy talking about the soapbox, first off, how is voicing my opinion on something I think is wrong claiming "morol authority." I would venture to guess that a VAST majority of people who see that story will feel the same way. That's not moral superiority, that's an expectation, or at least a hope, that the laws apply evenly.

Also, you imply that I'm not even supposed to comment on it until I do something about it. But isn't publishing this post and shedding light on it doing something in some small way? Since I don't live anywhere near Kenton, OH this is the best I can do. Would you like me to call for a boycott of Kenton HS games? Ok, fine. Everybody from Kenton who reads this, show your disgust and don't go to the games this fall. I sure won't.

There, do I know have a right to voice my opinion or is that still too "soapboxy"?

In Michigan, at Farmington Hills Harrison high school, the school that produced Drew Stanton, running back Marcus Woods of Mizzou, and countless other standouts along with 12 state championships, just kicked off its starting QB for drug possession on a team picked to win the state title, and a couple years back shut down their star running back for a whole year because he was .1 point below the minimum gpa, so you Ohio backers should quit trying to work around the fact that a judge just said taking away the lives of 2 people is worth 120 total days of 2 others....wait a minute, i just read the article. Yost, your a moron. They did get fairly punished. I mean, they had to write a 500 word essay on "Why I Should Think Before I Act". 500 is a lot of words to people in Ohio.

You think this is a legal travesty try this on for size. A district court judge in North Platte Nebraska recently sentenced a man to three months in county jail for raping a little boy. The guy should have done the 10-15 that the crim warrants. The judge said that because the accused was under 5 feet tall he wouldn't stand a chance in prison and therefore shouldn't be sent to the state penn. At least the kids father only has to wait three months to get his hands on this guy. The accused had prior sex offenses and was somewhere around 50 years old.

Not that this is any, any, justification for the judge's sentence, but it looks like, in fact, alcohol and marijuana may have been factors in the crash. At one point there was a motion to suppress evidence about the extent to which the driver was under the influence. Article available here.

I agree with the comments that the 60-day sentence is a bigger travesty than postponing the jail term.

Why would a sidenote be warranted? Just because something you heard on talk radio happened to be right? His post wasn't about the dangers of intoxication, it was about an unjust sentencing decision. Whether the driver was sober doesn't related to football's impact on criminal sentencing. Way to lose sight of what matters.

Again...who cares? I think its safe to say that Ohio and Michigan have more jus about everything in common and not much of it is all that good. Focus on your football team Michigan fans. You got some serious worries there. This whole diatribe--mostly from the comments--makes Michigan fans look like ND wannabees.

I agree that you need to see all the facts. If a 15 year old girl goes to a party, starts drinking and smoking and such, and gets raped, yes its a HUGE deal that she got raped and said rapist should be sentenced to the harshest extent of the law. BUT you do need to mention the fact that a 15 year old girl was drinking and smoking. The 2 victims in this case are not at fault for what happened, but it does need to be said whether or not they were intoxicated while driving. Does it make what the kids did in any way shape or form acceptable? Heck No. But the facts have to be presented .

I agree that you need to see all the facts. If a 15 year old girl goes to a party, starts drinking and smoking and such, and gets raped, yes its a HUGE deal that she got raped and said rapist should be sentenced to the harshest extent of the law. BUT you do need to mention the fact that a 15 year old girl was drinking and smoking. The 2 victims in this case are not at fault for what happened, but it does need to be said whether or not they were intoxicated while driving. Does it make what the kids did in any way shape or form acceptable? Heck No. But the facts have to be presented .

August 17, 2006 8:22 PM

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I'm sorry for being off topic (to an extent), but your analogy about a 15 year old girl being raped after a night of drinking/smoking is imperfect.

If the drivers of the car that had the accident were driving under the influence and at a high rate of speed, then were injured as a result of the prank, then they are responsible for choosing to get behind the wheel of the car in a compromised position, which happens to be a crime. IF that's true (not sure where it says this), then it actually does makes the pranksters less culpable for their injuries. Presumably they didn't mean for anyone to get hurt--they just thought they were being funny (as stupid teenagers often do). If the drivers weren't under the influence, they might have had better reaction time and avoided the accident in the first place.

A girl who has been out partying and who is raped, however, is the victim of a violent crime by a person who deliberately chose to assault her. Yes, she is also in a compromised position because she is intoxicated, which makes her an easier target for attacks, but she is a totally innocent victim. One should be able to be in a vulnerable state and not have to worry about being assaulted. Raping a drunk girl is no different than sexually molesting a child or a senior citizen in a nursing home--a drunk girl is a vulnerable person. Getting drunk may not be a smart thing to do, but it's not a crime.

Well there's the kicker, it is a crime. Underaged drinking is a crime, anmd shouldnt just be brushed off. Does this make the rapist right in any way shape or form? Absolutely not, but it still needs to be stated. It is in no way comparabnle to molesting a young child because that child is 100% innoscent, while this girl is already in the act of wrong doing anqd is indeed PUTTING HERSELF in a vulnerable position.

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